Fears and Flaws
by loulou365
Summary: Shikamaru is back in Konoha, and he has brought with him some surprising news from Suna. (This is a revamp of How Could You) Rated M for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

She used an earth jutsu to moisten the ground and watched as her opponent slid helplessly into the mud. As she released her signs the ground returned quickly to its normal firm state and the large man was trapped. Then the girl moved fast and suddenly she had hurdled herself up to kneel on the man's shoulders, her knife tight against his throat. The man's eyes widened.

"Shouldn't we stop her Shika?" Ino whispered in my ear. I shook my head.

Although the young woman was their target the aggressively large man that was now her victim had attacked first. I hadn't learned much from this girl's file so I used this opportunity to attempt to find her weakness. Unfortunately this was the only option.

I watched closely. A small knife held tightly in her right hand. The man struggle like some kind of small game stuck in a trap, knowing its fate. She pressed the blade lightly against his neck. One swift motion, left to right, with an upward flick. She was clinical and precise. The man slumped forward, half encapsulated in earth, and the girl used his motion to gracefully summersault off his shoulders into a standing position.

'There!' I though, as I saw her shoulders relax and her hand slide under her top to grope at her side coming away with blood on it. She had concealed it so well in battle, but the man had managed to knick her. Now was the time to make a move.

I didn't conjure a plan of action quickly enough. I saw her head turn hastily in our direction and her body stood to attention again, an action similar to that of the deer in the forest back home. She must have an acute sensitivity to chakra because Ino and I had ours under complete control to remain hidden. I felt Ino's hand shove our shoulders apart. The girl had throne five kunai in our direction.

This one was going to be very troublesome.

"South bound." Ino yelled wasting no time, leaping from the branches and running after our target.

I quickly followed, shaking my head in frustration as I formed signs for my shadow jutsu. I had them reach out in her direction but she was too quick. Despite her injuries she was out running both of us and evading my shadows attempts to capture her.

"I've lost a visual" Ino yelled back to me as she slowed down.

"Follow the blood." I said sprinting past her with my head down looking for the small flecks of red.

I forced my jutsu to go farther grabbing blindly at her. She dodged each attempt at capture, but I knew she was getting weaker. I saw the droplets of blood come more frequently. She must be irritating the wound with all this silly running.

"Damn it" I growled as I came to a stop. The path of blood diverged in three directions.

'That sly fox.' I thought to myself, but then I heard it, the faintest splashing of water in the direction of one of her paths.

I began to run again slowing to a halt as she came into view. She thought she had gotten away. She was using chakra to walk across the water towards a small waterfall. She was weak though and her chakra was fading as she stumbled and slipped, each foot suspending on the surface less and less often. She clumsily disappeared behind the falls as Ino stopped behind me.

We looked into each others eyes with a mutual understanding then we both made our way silently towards the fall, Ino trailing me closely. We skidded silently across the water to its edge. I sent my shadows in before me and I could feel them finally grab at her, she was motionless.

We slipped under the falls and into the small cave that lay behind it. Our target lay half in the water and half out collapsed on the edge of the rocks. The water around her was slowly becoming cloudy with red.

I used my shadows to lift the woman from the water and set her down on a flat rock. Then nodded for Ino to attend to her. My shadows held the girl tight in case she wasn't ready to give up the fight.

"She's out." Ino said absentmindedly as she moved glowing blue hands over the woman's wounds.

I let the shadow jutsu fall, only after I saw Ino's hands move from the girls injury to her forehead. She was locking her mind with a special jutsu she had created so the trip back to Konoha would be uneventful.

* * *

" Shikamaru she's awake." Ino said as she walked into my office. " Do you want to be there for the interrogation?"

"Anything to get away from this troublesome paperwork." I said standing and smiling at the blonde.

We walked down three flights from my office in the strategic wing of the building to the lower level interrogation and holding wing. It was dark and poorly lit on this floor with heavy locked doors in each labyrinth like hall. Ino pulled a door open to a small room with a one-way glass mirror against one wall that looked into a brightly lit room on the opposing side.

I stepped in to see the fiery young woman on the other side of the glass standing in front of a table with a chair on each side. I made my way to the glass watching as a man stepped into the room. He sat down slowly at the table with a folder in his hand. I vaguely recognized him as one of the interrogators under Ino's advisory. The girl stood staring down at him.

"She's refusing to deflate the room." Ino said staring at the girl clinically "It's a sophisticated way of creating an imbalance in power. I'm definitely going to have fun with this girl." Ino said, mostly to herself. A smirk crossed her full lips as she stared through the glass.

I watched as Ino's eyes flicked from the girls unmoving expression down to her hands that where tucked behind her back. Ino was trying to read her. I could see her drawing conclusions about the way the girl stared down at the interrogator and the way she stood with both feet planted firmly next to one another in perfect symmetry. Ino was good at reading people, even without her mind jutsus. But instead of watching the prisoner I surveyed Ino's expressions as she became more and more puzzled staring at this girl.

"Would you like to sit down?"

I turned back to watch the proceedings as the man spoke softly to the girl. She made no response, just continued to stare down at him silently, unflinching.

The door in the observation room clicked open and Tsunade walked in.

"What is Tazlo doing in there with her?"

"Oh." Ino said tearing her eyes away from the glass "I wanted to observe her first before I went in. She seems very deeply engrained in this domineering persona and I think we need to wear her down before I go in to speak to her." Ino said as she turned from Tsunade back to the glass. "I'm going to go ahead and guess she won't give us anything either way so I'll have to use my jutsu eventually."

"Good. I need a full report on what you find. She's been a big threat to Konoha. We need to find out whom she's working for and for what reason. We need to know who was next on her hit list so we can protect them." Tsunade said turning and leaving the room as quick as she came.

"She's unresponsive to Tazlo." Ino was speaking to herself again, she seldom had any thoughts that she internalized. I had a love hate relationship with this aspect of her personality. It was helpful in situations like this where both of us needed to gather intel and she had observational skills that I didn't, but when every little thought she had would poor out of her it became very troublesome.

Ino began to continue on with her analysis when she suddenly stopped. She had seen something before I did; a twitch in the girl's stance or a flicker behind her eyes.

She had launched herself across the table at Tazlo, her hands throttling his neck.

I was closest to the door so I quickly swung it open making signs with my hands as I moved out into the hallway. Ino followed me and grabbed the handle to the interrogation room, it flew open. I saw the girl running for an escape as my shadows filled the small chamber. They grabbed at her restraining her every inch. She screamed in frustration and for the first time I saw her piercing blue eyes. They were the lightest misty white blue and they darkened as she screamed at me looking me directly in the eyes. It sent a chill down my spine as I could feel the storm that raged within her.

I snapped from the moment and manipulated my shadows to pinch the pressure point residing at the tender spot between her neck and shoulder. She unwillingly relaxed from her terrifying scream into unconsciousness.

"Tazlo are you okay?" Ino said, coming to the man's side.

"Yeah I'm fine." He replied rubbing at his neck, which was already turning a light purple.

Three guards came in behind me, probably having heard the commotion. I lowered the girl to the ground and Ino instructed them to take her back to her cell. Saying something about how the girl really didn't intend to hurt Tazlo , she only wished to escape.

I watched as they lifted her from the ground her soft features looked completely relaxed. It was so dramatically different from the furious face I had just witnessed. How could such peace and unrest exist in one person, I wondered.

* * *

"What the hell was that Ino?!" I asked when we got into her office.

"It was the pictures." Ino said throwing the girls file down on her desk as she began to pace behind it. "When Tazlo started putting down the pictures of her targets something snapped. She kills like a mercenary but I have a feeling these hits are more personal. She's trying to be enigmatic, she isn't telling us anything and she's staying closed, but her aggression is getting the best of her. She's probably not used to being trapped like this. It's like caging a wild animal; eventually she'll do or say something that gives her away. We need to wear away at her more and she'll snap again."

"I don't think another snap is what we want Ino." I said remembering the girls penetrating stare.

"No not like that. It's like breaking a wild mustang with girls like this. She's too proud to admit defeat until she's finally broken. She's been refusing food, she's refusing to sleep in her cell, and she refused to sit down in the interrogation. When she was addressed with the pictures of her victims she could not refuse what she had done, and who they were. We were forcing her to give into something."

"What?"

"Her rage. She has a fire that even she can't contain and it's going to burn her up. Then it will be easy to enter her mind." Ino said with something I could only place as delight.

If there was one thing Ino liked more than talking it was defeating her opponents, in particular female opponents.

"I think she needs a couple days to let this sit. She's starving herself and loosing sleep it's only degrading her physical and mental state." Ino said beginning her pacing again "Then I'll interrogate her personally. If I get nothing than I'll be forced to extract it from her."

* * *

Three days passed and this girl wasn't giving in. The guards said she did nothing but sit on the floor of her cell staring through the bars. I saw no other way to get information from her; therefor Ino would have to work her magic.

I made sure to be there during the interrogation, but Ino refused to let me in the room for protection. She said it wasn't part of her strategy. I wondered what exactly she was planning because I had a nagging feeling it would not go well.

I watched through the glass as three guards escorted the girl into the room. She had tight cuffs on each hand; one of the guards attached the chain that connected the two cuffs to a chain that was attached to the middle of the table. They were being more precautious this time. Good.

Ino entered. She stood across from the girl with her back to the glass. I watched as the girl surveyed Ino, sizing her up.

"We need a name for our files." Ino finally said as she slowly sat down in front of the girl.

I stared in astonishment as the girl used her feet to pull back her own chair and sat down.

"Mist." She said simply, her voice was smooth and soft and came out like a whisper.

I couldn't quite pin this interaction into a category. It was an outlier to all that I had come to know of this girl. She was proud, stubborn, and full of wrath, she was precise, clinical, and swift, she has an earth affinity and a powerful left pop. She did not speak or sit; she did not surrender or yield. This was a tactic, this girl was intelligent and manipulative and this was some kind of ploy.

I watched the girl closely. Her face was controlled as she concentrated on Ino. She sat with her hands in small loose fists on the table. She was showing the mildest symbols of submission. I kept my eyes fixed on her. Something was off.

"Mist." Ino said as she scrawled it at the top of the manila folder "We've been calling you Rogue X all week. Its nice to have a name to put to all these horrible murders."

"Murders…huh." A sinister smile crossed Mist's face. "That's what your nation is calling them?"

Then it happened quicker than either Ino or I could react. Mist's eyes flashed to the mirror. I could feel her look right at me through the glass as if to taunt me and then she slammed her fists hard on the table. Her chair flew back against the wall and she used the wave of energy from her strike to boost herself into an acrobatic flip. She landed behind Ino and yanked hard at the chain that attached her to the table, breaking it. She pulled the chain between her cuffs back and against Ino's neck.

When I entered the room I moved with blind fury. I stormed towards the two girls struggling on the ground and grabbed at the chain around Ino's delicate neck, breaking it. She was then able to swing her arms back, pushing Mist away from her.

I charged at the girl quickly before she recovered and made three swift moves; a hit to her wrist, a hit to her inner elbow, and one hard hit to the soft flesh behind her ear. The increasing pain of each blow shocked her nervous system and she blacked out falling with a thud onto the cement floor from which she had just risen.

I turned back to Ino who had pushed herself half way up the wall. She was moving her hand, blue with chakra, over her throat. I relaxed to see that she was okay.

"Take her to my room." She croaked out in anger.

I looked from Ino to the girl and back again.

"Are you sure?"

Ino was in no state to start playing mind games. He jutsus required concentration and meticulousness. She was to wound-up to probe through someone's mind with precision.

"Do it Shikamaru!" she urged me with anger.

I picked the girl up from the floor and headed out into the halls.

Mist, it may have been the wrong time to think it, but the name fit her. She was like the mist. Not only did her eyes distinctly remind me of a misty blue ocean, but she had also been nothing but mysterious and full of danger since they had brought her back. I hoped we would uncover all of her secrets soon because her threat only increased with time. I was starting to think we knew less about her than we did at the beginning of this mission.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I came to the door of Ino's personal interrogation room.

I had watched a few of Ino's interrogations and none of them did I ever want to be a part of. Memory extraction seemed, to me, like a very painful process and the more her victims would struggle for control the more pain they would feel.

I entered the high ceilinged room, lit only by a small light that came down in the middle over a reclined chair with menacing straps on it. I laid Mist down on the chair and strapped her wrists and ankles in then moved to do the full body straps when I saw her staring down at me. Her eyes burrowed into me and I felt an involuntary chill go down my spin.

She didn't speak or struggle. Her face was controlled and I had no inclination as to what she was thinking. At that moment I didn't quite know what I was thinking either. Her gaze was paralyzed.

"Shika. Get away from her." Ino marched into the room, brushing me aside as she grabbed at the last of the straps and tightened them over the girl with tremendous force.

"We are going to have a little lesson in obedience." Ino said staring down at Mist with a look that made most flinch, but she was not fazed. She returned with a challenging look.

Ino formed delicate signs with her hand and went to place them on either side of the girls face but the minute their skin connected Ino screamed in animalistic pain. Her hand still remained on the sides of Mist's face. I watched Mist staring at Ino as her eyes darkened to a stormy blue. For a moment I didn't know what to do.

Then I rushed to pull Ino away but Mist seemed to let go of her before I did. Ino fell to her knees panting.

"Wh….what was that." Ino said staring down at her hands. I knelt down by her side trying to look her in the eyes but she kept looking at her hands.

My head flew up as I heard an eerie chuckle echo against the cement walls. Mist was staring down at Ino with menace in her smile.

"You didn't think you were the only pretty blonde with mind tricks did you?"


	2. Chapter 2

The look on Ino's face told Sakura that talking was not needed at the moment. She simply wrapped her arms around Ino's small shoulders and pulled her into a hug that she did not reciprocate.

"I think you need to go home Ino. You've been in that room with no sunshine and piles of books for days." Sakura said leading her to the employee locker room where she set Ino down on a bench between the lockers and plopped down next to her.

"He's marrying her." Ino said starring at the lockers in front of her. "That stupid Suna bitch, he's running away from his village and marrying some stupid lizard."

Sakura heard the false anger in Ino's voice. This is what happened last time. Ino was too proud to admit that someone had hurt her. She was too proud to show that she was human in the same way that everyone else was, so she got angry. Rather than admitting that someone had the power to break her, she clenched her fists and filled her mind with hot hatred.

Sakura didn't know what to say. When it came to Ino it was like a minefield, you take one wrong step and you're blown to pieces. She just sat in the silence and started at the blonde hoping she would talk instead, and she did.

"I think it would be best if I took the rest of the day off, my head is not in the right spot to work."

Sakura nodded "I'll tell Shizune."

* * *

"You can't hide in there forever Ino!" Choji yelled.

He was leaning against the door leading to Ino's apartment. He had been there for ten minutes pleading for her to let him in. He wasn't really sure what to say to her but he knew he should be there so she didn't do anything stupid.

Ino opened the door all the way and gave Choji a look of something close to disappointment. She slid away from the door with no invitation but he stepped in anyway. Ino motioned absent-mindedly to a chair in the corner of the room and laid down on the coach. She lay on her side staring at Choji waiting for him to speak, but he didn't, he just stared back at her with a look of pity on his face. She despised that kind of look. She showed Choji her true sadness and he looked at her like she was a dog being put down. What was so bad about wallowing in her sadness for a couple days?

He knew her and why couldn't he see that this was all she needed. Maybe it wasn't.

"He still loves you Ino. He just can't love you the way you want him to"

"I don't love him that way anymore. I'm just sad because he left and didn't even write or anything, and now I find out my friend from when I was basically 2 is getting married. It is a lot to take in don't you think?"

She had to shut down. She had to lie to him because he couldn't see her like this. No one understood. She had to be angry in front of Sakura so she didn't loose face and now she had to be sad, but not too sad, for Choji so he wouldn't stare at her in such a pitiful way.

"What ever you say Ino. That's not what the rest of the village thinks." Choji said leaning forward and resting his hands under his chin.

"Well the village knows nothing. They don't know me. I'm happy. I'm happy with Neji. Oh shit! Neji!" Ino jumped off the couch and scrambled for her things before rushing out the door, leaving Choji to gaze after her.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late I just lost track of time you know me." Ino said as Neji got up to hug her.

"Why were you late Ino?" He asked with the puppy dog look he always gave when he knew she wasn't telling him something.

"I told you, I lost track of time." She said looking at his chest.

His large arms draped around her as he gazed down at her with a more stern look and he waited for some semblance of truth.

"Ino, I know when you're lying." Neji said tilting her chin so she would look at him in the eye.

"He's back." Neji said.

After a few moments of silence he let her chin go and sat down letting out a rush of frustrated air from his lungs.

"How did you know?"

"Come on Ino don't be silly, I wasn't in the ANBU for nothing. I know about what goes on in this village weather I like to or not." He said in a tone that provoked a feeling of anger in Ino.

"So how was the mission?" Ino asked trying to change the subject as she sat down across from him putting a smile on her somber face.

He let the subject drop because pushing her would make things worse. In time she would be able to tell him. In time she would stop omitting her pain from him.

She was so strong, but in time she would let herself be weak in front of him. At least that is what he hoped for.

* * *

FLASHBACK

" So, can we train tomorrow? I am really out of shape." Ino said grabbing for Shikamaru's arm.

"Sorry Ino but I have stuff to do tomorrow." He said turning to her.

"Oh yea I forgot tomorrow is sit-on-your-ass-and-be-lazy day." Ino crossed her arms and turned in her chair to stare at him.

"Yep, and I better get going I'm celebrating early this year." He rushed out of the ramen shop leaving Ino sitting with a sad look on her face.

"What made you think he would take his day off and train?" Ino heard deep a voice next to her.

"One of these times I just know he'll say yes with no arguing. I can just feel it in my bones." Ino joked and turned to the brown haired man sitting next to her.

He ordered a bowl of ramen and turned back to Ino.

"If you really need to train I'm free tomorrow."

"Really Neji?"

"Mhm" He replied smiling at her.

"That would be great. But you have to promise not to make fun of me, I haven't been on any missions for a while."

"Okay." Neji said. He had heard about what happened to team 10.

"I'll stop by your house at seven tomorrow. Okay?" Neji said taking his ramen from the waiter.

He smiled effortlessly at Ino and she smiled back. For the first time in months she smiled with no false pretense, no aching feeling, no guilt.


	3. Chapter 3

CH3

Thud! Ino hit the ground hard. The punch Sakura had thrown had been infused with chakra, one of her specialties. She recovered fast running at Sakura full speed pulling her fist back for a punch. Sakura saw this and got in a stance so it would be easier to duck. Sakura wasn't as fast to avoid the kick that Ino landed on her side sending her to the ground. Sakura hopped back up and threw a chakra infused punch for Ino's face. Ino bent back avoiding it and did a round off back handspring into a standing position. This time Sakura came running and Ino jumped out of her way landing a punch in her stomach sending her into the nearest tree. Sakura slide down the tree and sat on the ground

"Sorry a little to much power in that one." Ino said running to Sakura's side.

"Nothing a little ice can't fix." Sakura said grimacing.

Ino lowered herself to the ground and sat next to Sakura and looked up threw the canopy at the sky above. The perfect day to watch clouds she thought to herself.

"What are you thinking about Ino?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just been a long week. I'm trying not to think." Ino turned her head to the girl and gave her a halfhearted smile. The life and animation had been drawn from Ino's face, her emotions were faded leaving her with a tame demeanor.

"Ino, come on you can't be like this forever." Sakura said standing up "It's been a week since he's been back and your acting like someone died."

"Someone did die Sakura, the Shika I used to know. The one that didn't go off and marry someone and leave his village, the one who dreamed of just settling down in Konaho on his parents estate. The one who never had time for women. The one who talked to me." Ino's voice was slightly raised and she was on her feet now. She felt a lump grow in the back of her throat as she held back tears with her fists clenched. She had wanted to practice with Sakura so she could blow off steam not talk about this.

"Ino come on he is the same Shikamaru and if you let him you guys would talk. You of all people know that dreams change and people change. This is for the better." Sakura said in a pleading voice.

"Its just not how it was supposed to be." Ino said quietly, sitting back down and burying her face in her hands.

Sakura stepped forward and knelt by the girl that she had the greatest admiration for.

"You can just go I think I would rather be alone." Ino said looking up at Sakura and giving her a little smile. Sakura did as told, reluctantly, and left.

Ino stood to look for her stray weapons.

Why was everyone trying to tell her how to feel? She had to be so many people for everyone to make them happy and to make them think she was happy. She was starting to forget what she was really feeling and who she truly was.

Ino stopped and her thoughts faded as she bent down to pick up a kunai. She felt someone.

Danger! Ino's mind screamed. She threw the kunai in her hand in the direction of where she could sense someone. Then herd it shuffle in the bushes and the person she was hoping the least to see stepped out.

"How did you do that I had my chakra under perfect control?" The dark eyed man asked stepping towards her and she stepped back.

"Not good enough I guess. I've become very sensitive to chakra signatures." Ino said with tightness in her stomach and a confused look on her face.

Why was he here? Why was he all the way out in the woods sitting in a bush?

"Your father has taught you a lot since I've been gone."

"No, that was all me." She said a small smile crawled up the left side of her mouth. "I taught myself a lot after you left."

Ino pushed the hair out of her face so she could look him directly in the eyes. Shikamaru turned his back to her and shoved his hands in his pockets avoiding her piercing stare.

"Yea I've heard." He said scoffing at the ground.

"What have you heard?" her brow furrowed. What did people have to say about her?

"That I'm not the only one that has found a life partner." He said as he pushed his hands further and further into his pockets until Ino was sure he might rip right threw.

Ino fell to the ground laughing. She grabbed at a stitch in her side trying to catch her breath when Shikamaru came to her side. Staring down at her he realized she wasn't hurt in any way.

"Tha…tha..that's good. How… could… yo…you…life partner." Ino gained her self control and rolled onto her back staring up at him smiling. "We aren't engaged. Who even said that? We've only been going out for a year. I mean some of the villagers might think…Well we aren't "life partners" you old man."

"I've just heard stories about how happy you two are and when I saw you, you guys just looked right together."

"When did you see us?" Ino's face shifted a little as she wondered what he must think of her moving on in her own way. What he might be confused about. She felt embarrassed at her lack of empathy.

"At that café. You came in in a hurry. He just looked at you like…" He trailed off and scratched the back of his head as he stared down at her.

Ino didn't want to know what he was about to say so she let it fall. She smiled at the sight of him looking uncomfortable when mentioning human contact. Ino smiled up at him with a flutter in her stomach.

Shikamaru did this every time he saw her and didn't even know it. Every time he came around she seemed to forget how badly he hurt her. That was how it always was. She could hold a grudge for longer than she lived with anyone but him. It was like he set her brain on a different mode, but it was only a temporary, after they parted the feelings of anger and sadness would return and she would hate herself even more for making him think she had forgiven him.

Ino turned her head to the side as she lay on the ground and the high was gone, the feeling of happiness left her. She retreated from him and he could feel her pull away. How could one lazy human being have so much control over her? She lay there on the ground and hoped with all her heart she would just disappear into the grass. She wouldn't have to deal with the look he gave her when the smile slid off her face. She didn't know what the conversation that followed would be about but she knew she didn't want to be there to listen to it.

"Ino?" Shikamaru said kneeling next to her as she laid on her back staring up at him. She nodded to let him know he had her full attention. "Sakura was right. You should move on."

She let his words wash over her mind. He wanted her to move on? To what? To a life of halfhearted smiles? To a life of full rooms and an empty heart? That is what he was condemning her to.

What he had said seemed so final that she didn't know how to tell him she couldn't. She had tricked herself into believing she loved another man and she had tricked herself into believing she was thriving without Shikamaru.

It was okay to create something fake while he was gone but now he was here and she couldn't move on from this. What ever this was, not matter how terrible her timing was or how fucked up it was she loved him. She may have tried to convince herself she didn't but she did. She loved him and it was breaking her.

She could only manage to slowly look back up to him with a faux smile and said "I'll try."


	4. Chapter 4

FLASHBACK

"You can't stay in bed for the rest of your life Ino." Shikamaru said sitting on a chair next to her bed. Ino laid on her side facing the wall her back to him.

"Well that was the plan." She said a pained sarcasm in her voice.

"You have to let it go. You have to let him go." Shikamaru said looking at his hands that where now in a tangled ball.

"I just thought I could save him. He saved me so many times and I couldn't save him. Just once."

"Ino, no one could have saved Asuma." He said setting his hand on her shoulder. She tensed at his touch.

"It was because I was too weak. I wasn't strong enough to fight the Akatsuki." Ino said she turned in the bed to face him and sat up.

Shikamaru could see how hurt she was. She looked like she had been crying for days.

"I can't let him go!" She almost screamed sliding out of her bed, side stepping him on the chair and pacing behind him.

Shikamaru stood and took a step towards her, his hands unintentionally outstretched, but she backed away knocking into her wall with surprise at his attempt to comfort her.

"Ino just let it go he's gone and your crying won't bring him back."

He took another step towards her as tears flowed freely down her face now. It was almost as if he could feel her pain. He wanted to find her hurt and destroy it. He wanted to swallow all her sadness up until she was happy enough to smile again, but how could he take away what she was feeling. He felt it too. He just wanted her to be happy, life was so much easier when she was happy. It was easier when they were both happy. He wanted to will them both into happiness.

He hadn't realized it but he had been staring at her for much too long and his hands were clasped at her arms in some kind of effort to sooth her. Their faces where about a foot apart and she looking into his eyes with the same sympathy that he felt himself looking into hers.

Ino's father was right the eyes are the windows to the soul. She could see how much Shikamaru was hurting and how much she was hurting him. She didn't want to feel this way, she didn't want to do this to him, she didn't want him to be sad because of her, but how could he be telling her to let go of Asuma.

She fell against him and buried her face in his shirt.

"I'm so sorry Shika. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. "

"For what?"

"For everything I'm just sorry."

He pulled her into his arms and held her for minutes, maybe hours. They stayed like that until the hurt subsided and the sunset and they were able to moved on in some way.

* * *

"I insist you come in for something to eat. It is the least I can do after you helped me today. I mean Tsunade was on my back because I have gotten lazy in my kunai throwing." Ino said opening her door and ushering Shikamaru in.

"Mom…Dad?" Ino called out, but there was no reply" I guess they're gone."

Ino walked to the kitchen and he followed. There was a small table in one of the corners with two chairs. Shikamaru sat in one and watched Ino shuffle around the kitchen pulling things from the fridge and cabinets. He turned his face away from her moment to glance out of the window over the streets of Konoha.

The Yamanakas lived in the apartment above the flower shop for as long as he could remember. It had originaly been three apartments but they remodeled it to make one large apartment. He had been in it enough times he could walk threw it blindfolded.

Ino and him had grown up together with their fathers' being so close. He could remember all the good times they had. Normally they would go to the Naras' house because it was much bigger and there were more things to do but on occasion he would be at the apartment.

He would go over to listen to her talk about something or other; he would sit with partial attention and then attempt to help. As they got older he began coming over more often just to talk. He liked to sit and listen to her soft voice. She had grown out of her loud annoying self and they could have a conversation that didn't always revolve around her. No body really knew it but she was a bright young woman and knew a lot more then anyone gave her credit for.

"Done" Shikamaru was broken from his trance and saw a bowl had been set in front of him.

"You were better then I thought you would be today." Shikamaru picked up the chop sticks she had placed next to the bowl.

"Well you know two days ago when you couldn't help me?" he nodded and she went on" Well Neji offered to help me."

"Okay." He just stared at his bowl his teeth clenched, and he couldn't interpret his feelings.

Why would he be angry, it was just Neji? Why should he even care? He should be happy he didn't have to train with her.

They finished their dinner. The conversation was bland, missions, the weather, and relatives; Ino gave a couple of anecdotes on funny things that had gone on that week, but nothing really deep like they usually talked about. This visit left them looking at the clock rather then losing track of time.

"Well have a good night." Ino said as she leaned against the wall in the entrance hallway watching Shikamaru slide his shoes on.

He stood up and they looked at each other for a while, neither knowing what was going to happen next. It was a moment where time stood still. Then Ino made a move towards him and her body took over from there, wrapping her hands around his neck and kissing him.

For a moment he did not respond and then he set his hands on her lower back pulling her closer and deepening their kiss. She could feel their faces getting hot and he leaned her against the wall trying his best to connect every inch of himself to her. Then as if a switch had turned on in his brain he pushed her away from him.

"No we shouldn't. I'm sorry Ino we can't." Shikamaru's eyes were wide and he almost ran into the door in an attempt to leave. He opened it and quickly closed it leaving Ino standing staring at the wall in front of her.


End file.
